The manufacture of large area flat panel displays (LCD, STN, AMLCD) is a difficult and costly process. To a great extent manufacturing resembles that of VLSI (very large scale integration) integrated circuit manufacturing. It is a process intensive environment dominated by lithography, deposition and etch. Like semiconductor manufacturing, process control and defect density are crucial factors in terms of yield and ultimately cost.
Multichip modules (MCMs) represents somewhat of a halfway point between large area displays and VLSI. Like VLSI, MCMs are process intensive, defect limited technologies like large area displays (LAD). MCMs typically have much fewer "die" and require much higher yields on a per area basis than integrated circuits.
The ability to manufacture, at reasonable costs, large area display is an enabling capability. Many products that are technically feasible today have not been exploited primarily due to the high cost of the display.
An economic thin film transistor (TFT) display could potentially solve these problems. The TV and computer markets alone represent an opportunity for as many as twenty million displays annually. This estimate is very conservative if existing yield and cost issues can be overcome.